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Medieval Age Demographics

Started by Algolei, April 07, 2006, 02:41:26 AM

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Algolei

April 07, 2006, 02:41:26 AM
I need to find medieval age demographics.

( :ponder: Did that question even make sense?)

My campaign is based on low-magic and has a very medieval setting.  How many people of each age would you need to maintain a stable population?  What's the life expectancy?  How often do women die in childbirth?  That's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

So, for example, next time my idiot nephew rounds up all the inhabitants of a village and asks me how old each of them is, I'll be able to answer him with a number rather than just have trolls attack so I don't need to think about it.

Plus I want the stats for filling out my campaign world, that sort of thing. ;)
 

shooting_dice

#1
April 07, 2006, 03:58:07 AM
Ask and you shall receive:

http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/rfield/LifeExpectancy.htm
http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Fertilit.htm

The short version: Oft-quoted bits about life expectancy ignore bottlenecks where lots of people died in childhood and other events.(This is also why Romans are depicted as having such short lifespans -- infanticide was routinely used for a large part of Roman history.)

Incidentally, one thing people don't often know is that medieval folks were healthier than people in subsequent eras until around the 19th century:

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/medimen.htm
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/social_science_history/v028/28.2steckel.html

This is attributed to urbanization and a number of other causes.

This meant, for example, that the indigenous folks the Plymouth colonists met were usually much taller than them.
 

Bagpuss

#2
April 07, 2006, 07:53:14 AM
Okay can anyone find me Roman ones?
 

Algolei

#3
April 07, 2006, 07:19:43 PM
Yeah, that kinda stuff, thanks. :bow:

I'm still looking for more data.  I was hoping to find, for instance, a graph showing percentage of population at each age.  For instance, what percentage of a stable population would be 20 years old?  Or 5 years old?  That sort of thing.

Quote from: shooting_dicehttp://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/social_science_history/v028/28.2steckel.html
"Access Restricted"

Whuzzat mean?
 

willpax

#4
April 07, 2006, 10:01:01 PM
That cite is from Project Muse, an academic database. He might have access through a campus computer or account, but outside people won't get it. Here are two articles by Steckel with abstracts:

QuoteSteckel, Richard H. (Richard Hall) 1944-
Health and Nutrition in Pre-Columbian America: The Skeletal Evidence  
Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Volume 36, Number 1, Summer 2005, pp. 1-32 - Article

Subjects:
Human remains (Archaeology) -- America.
Indians -- Health and hygiene -- History.

Abstract
A millennial perspective on health is best obtained from skeletal remains, which depict not only childhood morbidity conditions but also processes of degeneration that accompany aging and strenuous physical effort. Compiled into an index of health, data from twenty-three localities collected as part of a large collaborative project on the Western Hemisphere reveal diverse health conditions and a long-term decline that was associated with movement into less healthy ecological environments. The results have implications for understanding environmental determinants of health, the pattern of European conquest, pre-contact population size, human adaptation to climate change, and discovering prime movers of very long-term economic growth.

QuoteSteckel, Richard H. (Richard Hall) 1944-
New Light on the "Dark Ages": The Remarkably Tall Stature of Northern European Men during the Medieval Era
Social Science History - Volume 28, Number 2, Summer 2004, pp. 211-228 - Article

Subjects:
Men -- Anthropometry -- Europe, Northern -- History -- To 1500.
Stature -- Europe, Northern -- History -- To 1500.

Abstract
Based on a modest sample of skeletons from northern Europe, average heights fell from 173.4 centimeters in the early Middle Ages to a low of roughly 167 centimeters during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Taking the data at face value, this decline of approximately 6.4 centimeters substantially exceeds any prolonged downturns found during industrialization in several countries that have been studied. Significantly, recovery to levels achieved in the early Middle Ages was not attained until the early twentieth century. It is plausible to link the decline in average height to climate deterioration; growing inequality; urbanization and the expansion of trade and commerce, which facilitated the spread of diseases; fluctuations in population size that impinged on nutritional status; the global spread of diseases associated with European expansion and colonization; and conflicts or wars over state building or religion. Because it is reasonable to believe that greater exposure to pathogens accompanied urbanization and industrialization, and there is evidence of climate moderation, increasing efficiency in agriculture, and greater interregional and international trade in foodstuffs, it is plausible to link the reversal of the long-term height decline with dietary improvements.
Cherish those who seek the truth, but beware of those who find it. (Voltaire)

Algolei

#5
April 08, 2006, 02:29:30 AM
Quote from: willpaxHere are two articles by Steckel with abstracts:
Yeah, I've found abstracts by Steckel with a google search, but I can't get the whole articles without "belonging." :(

Wait, here's one!  http://elsa.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/olney/e211_fa03/e211-steckel.pdf

Steckel seems to have reused his ideas in several different articles.  I seem to have found the words "A millennial perspective on health is best obtained from skeletal remains" in three different discussions:  Chinese, Pre-Columbian, and European populations.  He just keeps ending the sentence differently. :heh:
 

FraserRonald

#6
April 08, 2006, 08:17:33 AM
Quote from: shooting_diceAsk and you shall receive:

http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/rfield/LifeExpectancy.htm
http://www.hyw.com/books/history/Fertilit.htm

Those are pretty interesting. Thanks for posting the links!

Algolei

#7
April 08, 2006, 11:38:07 PM
My brain hurts from reading these PDFs.  I finished one last night only to finally figure out it wasn't about age demographics, but about disease and whether you had to consider age...when you...uh....

I don't know.  Something about age being important.

Anybody know where JGBrowning is these days?  My first idea was to post these questions on his XRP board, but I don't think it exists anymore.  There's a guy who should have this sort of information up his sleeve (or at least in a reference book).
 
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